New Delhi: Hockey India Secretary General Narinder Batra hit back at Sports Authority of India's Director General Jiji Thomson, accusing the top SAI official of "telling lies" and misguiding the media as far as conducting camps were concerned.
HI High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans had recently written a letter to Sports Ministry, highlighting the women team coach's complaint about the "dangerous" pitch at NIS Patiala. And Thomson told a press conference here that HI can shift the women's national camp at any of the 12 venues in north India which has artificial turfs, including the one at Shilaroo in Himachal Pradesh. Batra said, "HI had raised the attached medical issues for Shilaroo being a high-attitude centre, the letter was sent to SAI on 18 October, 2013, i.e almost 10 months back, and SAI is yet to respond."
"Please get your own house in order before you start misinforming the press about Hockey India," Batra added.
Taking a dig at Batra with whom he has been having a war of words, Thomson had earlier in the day said the country has 103 artificial turfs at various centres and SAI had never insisted on conducting national camps in New Delhi only.
And Batra said: "Further you have said that HI wants camps in Delhi for reasons known to all of you. Why are you telling lies, is it the work culture of Union Sports Ministry - first Secretary Sports and now you.
"Facts is we hate to have camps in Delhi, do not tell lies, do you have any other centre in India where we can go and have our camp today, the answer is no."
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